Pandemic risk trade-offs, disability and family, underrepresented doctoral students
February 16, 2022
Mask Mandates? Making Equitable Decisions During the Pandemic
Four Ethical Considerations for Assessing Trade-Offs
Since the start of the pandemic, societies have faced agonizing decisions about whether to close schools, shutter businesses, delay nonemergency health care, restrict travel, and authorize the use of emergency Covid-19 countermeasures under limited scientific understanding. When both action and inaction can result in significant harm and irreversible damage, decisions surrounding infection control measures become complicated. A new essay in the Hastings Center Report by Lawrence Gostin and Sarah Wetter proposes four key considerations for assessing risk trade-offs. Read the essay.
We Belong to One Another: Disability and Family Making Register for Virtual Event
Ableism frames disability as a “family problem,” in which disability is a tragedy for nondisabled family members and a disqualifying factor when disabled people want to build families of their own. But, to the contrary, disability can create new opportunities for flourishing by challenging traditional notions of what family is and should be. In “We Belong to One Another: Disability and Family Making,” a virtual event on March 14, disabled writers, activists, and scholars will discuss their own models of disabled kinship, featuring Jina Kim, Sami Schalk, and Jess Waggoner on queercrip doulaing, Mia Mingus on access intimacy, and Leah Smith and Joseph Stramondo on parenting disability gain. Learn more and register.
Applications Open for Sadler Scholars Underrepresented Doctoral Students
The Hastings Center is accepting applications for the 2022-23 Sadler Scholars, a select group of up to six doctoral students with research interests relevant to bioethics who are from racial and ethnic communities underrepresented in this field in the United States. Deadline: March 14. Learn more and apply.
The Burglar at Midnight Takeaways from "Righting the Wrongs: Tackling Health Inequities"
David Williams, an internationally recognized Harvard scholar, showed how segregation is a driver of differences in income and education and how these racial inequities matter for life and health. In his address last month at the health equity summit, he said: “Think of segregation as a burglar at midnight. Once it shows up, valuables disappear like quality schools and safe playgrounds and good jobs and a healthy environment and safe housing and access to high-quality transportation and high-quality medical care. These are all shaped by where you live in the United States.” Read more and watch Williams’s talk.
Upcoming Events
"Comprehending Personhood in the Context of Rehabilitative Medicine." A talk by Hastings Center research scholar Erik Parens in the Weill Cornell Division of Medical Ethics Lecture Series. February 17.
"Is It Possible to Have Healthy People on a Sick Planet?" Gary Cohen will present the Callahan Annual Lecture, April 19.
"Ethical Issues We Have Faced Over the Pandemic and Lessons Learned." A talk by Hastings Center President Mildred Solomon at Yale. May 11.
The Hastings Center seeks to ensure responsible health and science policy and practice. We work to secure the wisest possible use of emerging technologies and fair, compassionate, and just health care for people across their lifespan.
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